July 2009
July 2009
Dear Biola Community,
It’s the end of July and I am in Canada with my family for a vacation, returning August 8 for what I know will be the beginning of a wonderful school year. But let’s not rush it!
This morning when I awoke I did so thinking about the staff and faculty of Biola and how much I enjoy working alongside each of you. And as I thought I prayed. My prayer was that the Lord would continue to give us a spirit of love for each other and joy in our work. I also thought about all that is before us this coming year and that as we ramp up we would not forget the simplicity of our life and our faith, of families and friendships.
When I was five or six our family started vacationing at a lake that borders Vermont and Quebec, drawn here by a small Plymouth Brethren Christian camp that has been around since the 1940s. A number of years later my parents bought a cottage, fixed it up, and this place has been a constant in our lives since.
What makes this place special is its simplicity. We can drive up the road to buy eggs from the “egg lady” for a Canadian dollar a dozen. Our raspberry jam is made by my 82-year old mother from berries picked in local fields. The loons on Lake Wallace remind us of their presence with their late night voices that carry in the open air. We gather at night with families we’ve known for decades and build a fire or grill some burgers, catching up on what our children have done all day. Cell phones don’t work. I dial up to check my email once a day. The Montreal Gazette is tucked each morning in the mailbox. The woods nearby have familiar trails I’ve hiked since childhood, by ponds and falls and among an occasional swatted horsefly. Across the country road from our place we see a mountainside of maple trees, tapped each spring for their maple sap slowly heated into syrup at one of three lakeside sugar houses. We’ll bring cans home and give away these gifts of local flavor.
Anders, Ella and Sam awake in the mornings to the aroma of their grandmother’s cinnamon buns baking in the oven later glazed with sugary frosting. The shed has a bunch of old bikes that we’ll take to cottages up the road or even—with passports in hand—across the border to Canaan, Vermont or West Stewartstown, New Hampshire to buy a few groceries or a Boston Globe.
As I write this, I am looking across the still early morning water as the lake has brimmed from recent rains. Too little rain in California. Too much rain here. On the floor beside this couch where I’m plopped is the residue of a Monopoly game two of our children played last night with some of their friends, who in fact are distant cousins. Yesterday’s beach towels are drying on the railings, and I haven’t shaved in a few days. It’s simple here, and that is what I enjoy and need.
In a few weeks our lives will once again pick up momentum and it will seem far from simple. Yet the virtues of simplicity I don’t want to abandon just because the busyness of the university year has begun. One thing that has been particularly on my heart this summer is the simplicity and the power of prayer. As many of us at Biola gathered to pray a few Mondays ago on July 13, praying for the needs of Biola and our students, I loved that time for its simplicity and its power. Prayer is something we all do, regardless of our job and skills.
In Mark chapter one Jesus gets away to a solitary place to pray (1:35) before heading off to the nearby villages to do what he was called to do (1:38). As we find the time in our summer months to pray in preparation for the busyness to come, I encourage you to join me in doing just that: praying. We have a great God who loves nothing more than when we come to him in intimate communion. And when the university year begins in earnest a few weeks from now, I will continue to think about the simplicity of prayer in my life and in the life of our community. I’ll have more to share with you about that when we’re together.
Let’s continue to pray for those six areas we brought before each other and the Lord that Monday back in mid-July. Pray for our students and the ability of their families to have the financial resources to attend Biola, which for many is the university of their choice. One student I’ve come to know emailed me the other day saying, “I’m writing you today to ask for prayer. Over the last year my family has lost an incredible amount of money and it seems slim that I will be attending Biola next fall.” This student is not alone.
Pray also for the enrollment management team as its members press on these final weeks. Pray for the academic side with faculty preparing for another year and new faculty joining us. Pray for Student Development and housing services staff who are busy preparing for new and returning students who will move into their residence halls in three weeks. Pray for the facilities and grounds service staff who are sprucing up the campus to welcome the new families to Biola and wrapping up summer improvement projects. Pray for the finances of Biola that we be good stewards of our resources and that the Lord would meet our needs. Pray for our fund raising work as the advancement team prepares for some ambitious projects. Pray for the employees of Biola University, for each other, as we all have important roles in this community and very real needs personally. And pray that the Lord would do great things in our midst this year, beyond our own comprehension or planning, for his glory and not our own.
Thank you!
Until we are together, I wanted to share a few photos with you of what I was doing at Biola earlier this summer. I trust you’ll enjoy the balance of the summer in whatever you are doing. Some of you are back from vacation and others are getting ready to go on one. One faculty member wrote me the other day to tell me that this summer he and his family in La Mirada are raising chickens incubated last term. They kept two of the hens which have “now produced their first dozen eggs for our breakfasts. Urban homesteading meets Christian homeschooling.” So whether you’re poultry farming or taking day trips to the beach, heading off to family reunions or visiting a National Park, may these summer days be refreshing and renewing.
God bless you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Warmly,
Barry H. Corey